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Two Mon-Yough schools are among five finalists in a video contest tied in to Kennywood's 28th annual Education Days.

Propel Homestead and East Allegheny High School videos are on www.kennywood.com/education-days along with entries from Butler, Quaker Valley and Trinity high schools.

Viewers can vote on their favorite through Friday.

“Vote East Allegheny,” that district's website urges with a link to the Kennywood site.

The winning video will be announced April 15 and get tickets to Kennywood's Education Days on May 14 or 20, as well as a special Kennywood Arrow to display.

As of Tuesday night, East Allegheny had the most viewers, 1,131, for a 61-second production by Graphics and Physics II classes.

On the video, physics teacher Rick Campbell starts out boring but ends up with other teachers joining him with hip-hop, cowbells, a spinning bicycle tire and, of course, a Kennywood arrow.

Quaker Valley has 871 views, Butler 379, Propel Homestead 366 and Trinity 364 so far. However, votes are cast on the “Education Days 2014” page.

“They really put forth all of the effort,” Propel Homestead Afterschool Program director Deanna Dugan said of the only finalist not put together by a high school class.

The after-school program has students in grades 6-8.

“One of our students wrote the script,” teacher Shawnda Hopkins said. She's recorded saying, “There is nothing educational about Kennywood.”

“Yes, there is, there's a lot of things you can do that are educational,” seventh-grader Justin Todd retorted before other classmates gave examples.

Kennywood officials said physics, math, and architecture programs are available on both May 14 and 20. Communication components are added to the mix on May 14, when the park will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., while May 20 has additional science programs for a 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. agenda.

Quaker Valley's video starts black and white then goes color when an arrow knocks out a teacher reminiscent of Ben Stein's character in “Ferris Bueller's Day Off.” A Butler teacher is led to wake up his class with carefully placed Kennywood arrows and Trinity's video gives new meaning to a marketing class.

The West Mifflin park begins its 2014 season on May 3 at 10:30 a.m. It will be open May 10 and 11 then begin regular weekday hours on May 15.

Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.

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